Almost every New Year’s Eve, my family stays in. As homebodies, we avoid the crowds and sit on the family room floor instead, flipping through childhood photo albums, slowly pressing together the pieces of a new jigsaw puzzle, and toasting the Ball Drop at 9 pm with Martinelli’s.
But this year, after my brother’s friend raved about the Cirque de Soleil that was visiting San Francisco, he and my parents changed their minds about a low-key day. They snagged tickets for the three of them, plus my guy and me, for an afternoon showing. Their logic? The event would still finish with plenty of time for us to head home to our puzzle!
(In case you were wondering… This was the one we worked on this year!)
So we drove into the city late Wednesday morning. After arriving with over an hour to spare, we walked around near the piers, posed for pictures with the Giants baseball stadium in the background, and eventually made our way back to the big blue and yellow striped tent.
We spent the next two hours gasping, clapping, and cheering as the troupe performed their acts. There were a few more traditional ones, like the extremely flexible ladies contorting their bodies into incredible back flips and the two men gymnastically swinging from the ropes hanging from the ceiling, as well as more modern acts like a girl treating a bicycle as a trapeze swinging in a circle from the top of the tent and a group bouncing on a humongous trampoline suspended in midair.
By the end of the show, our mouths were permanently hanging wide open and we joked about how my brother’s New Year’s Resolution would be to run away and join Cirque de Soleil!
But since most people come up with slightly more traditional resolutions like eating healthier, I decided to start off the month with one of my new favorite breakfasts: these Healthy Chocolate Chip Banana Bran Muffins! They’re supremely moist — the exact opposite of the stereotypical crumbly cardboard bran muffins. And just look at all of those temping chocolate morsels! 😉
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST HEALTHY BANANA BRAN MUFFINS
Let’s go over how to make the best healthy banana bran muffins! Just like the majority of my recipes, these are completely homemade and entirely made from scratch. If you’re a regular here at Amy’s Healthy Baking, you’ll know that I already make healthy goodies all year round, but in honor of New Year’s Resolutions and improving our diets after the holidays (I definitely ate a few too many of these sugar cookies and pieces of this incredible fudge!), I’m starting this month with extra healthy clean eating recipes like this one that contain nothing processed or overly refined.
That’s right! These healthy chocolate chip banana bran muffins are made of 100% whole wheat flour and oat bran. They’re naturally sweetened with mashed banana, molasses, and pure maple syrup. Use the most speckled bananas you can find! The darker, the better. Those contain more natural sweetness, but if yours are more yellow than brown, feel free to add an extra tablespoon or two of maple syrup.
Hint: I also included my favorite gluten-free options in the Notes section of the recipe, if you’d like to make your healthy chocolate chip banana bran muffins gluten-free!
When it comes to bran muffins, I love mine packed with oat bran. I practically treat it like flour, not just another mix-in, so we’ll actually use more oat bran than whole wheat flour in these. However, many muffins with that much bran turn out crumbly and dry—and practically taste like cardboard. But my one simple trick will give you the exact opposite texture.
My secret? Soak the oat bran. Stir it together with the milk, mashed banana, and vanilla, and let that bowl rest while measuring and mixing the rest of the ingredients. That allows the oat bran to soften and makes your healthy chocolate chip banana bran muffins extremely moist and tender.
Hint: The mashed banana actually replaces the eggs! So these easy bran muffins are eggless (and it’s totally safe to sneak a taste of the batter! 😉 ). Any type of milk will work, but I love using vanilla unsweetened almond milk because that’s what my family drinks the most. Both of these things mean that your healthy chocolate chip banana bran muffins are naturally dairy-free, egg-free, and vegan!
And the chocolate chips… Who can resist those chocolate chips?? I wanted to pick them off of every muffin — they’re my weakness! I use minis because they disperse better and melt more evenly. Plus it ensures more chocolate in every bite!
I always save some chocolate chips for pressing into the tops just before baking as a cute finishing touch, but be careful when slipping the muffins out of the pan. Don’t completely invert them or you’ll end up with a fist full of melty chocolate and none on the muffins! Although come to think of it, that wouldn’t be so bad after all…
I can already tell 2015 is going to be a great year… My dad ate two of these Healthy Chocolate Chip Banana Bran Muffins for a snack before we even counted down to midnight. Such a sweet compliment!
So happy New Year, and thank you for making 2014 such a wonderful year at Amy’s Healthy Baking!
And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy chocolate chip banana bran muffins!
| Healthy Chocolate Chip Banana Bran Muffins | | Print |
- 1 ½ cup (180g) oat bran (gluten-free if necessary and measured like this)
- ⅓ cup (80mL) unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- ¾ cup (200g) mashed banana (about 2 medium - see Notes!)
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120g) whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup (60mL) pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup (60mL) molasses
- 3 tbsp (42g) miniature chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and lightly coat 10 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the oat bran, milk, banana, and vanilla extract. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the melted butter, maple syrup, and molasses until thoroughly combined. When the oat bran mixture is ready, stir it into the butter mixture. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in 2 ½ tablespoons of chocolate chips.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups, and lightly press the remaining chocolate chips into the tops of the batter. Bake at 350°F for 19-21 minutes, or until the tops are just barely firm to the touch. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before carefully turning out onto a wire rack.
Any milk may be substituted for the unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
White whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the regular whole wheat flour.
It’s extremely important to measure both the oat bran and flour correctly using this method or a kitchen scale. (← That’s the one I own and love!) Too much of either will make your muffins dry, instead of supremely moist and soft.
Honey or agave may be substituted in place of the pure maple syrup.
This is the molasses that I use. I don't recommend substituting blackstrap molasses! It's much more bitter in flavor. I also don't recommend substituting for the molasses, if at all possible, because it's what gives bran muffins their iconic flavor.
Soaking the oat bran before measuring and mixing together the remaining ingredients in Step 1 ensures that the oat bran will be soft and ready to use. It's my trick for the best supremely moist bran muffins!
GLUTEN-FREE VERSION: For a gluten-free version, use certified gluten-free oat bran and the following gluten-free flour blend: ½ cup (60g) millet flour, ¼ cup (30g) tapioca flour, ¼ cup (30g) brown rice flour, and ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum. Most store-bought gluten-free flour blends (like this one!) will also work, if measured like this.
DAIRY-FREE, EGG-FREE + VEGAN VERSION: Use the coconut oil option and vegan-friendly miniature chocolate chips (these are my favorite!).
{gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, clean eating, low fat}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
Just stumbled across your site. I really appreciate the fact that you give detailed instructions with tips/tricks, that you include substitutions with their measurements and nutritional information! Thank you!
It’s my pleasure, Jess! I’d love to hear what you think if you try these muffins! 🙂
Made them last night. They were yummy! Especially right from the oven.
I’m so glad you loved these muffins Jess! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know — I truly appreciate it! 🙂
you may not realize it but soaking bran in milk is not new and sorry to say not the “secret” you claim.
alas chocolate chips have become ubiquitous these days and seem to be in virtually every muffin recipe, as if kids won’t eat any breakfast/dessert food unless it’s flecked with those little brown pieces.
and when will someone realize foods are “healthful” and people (if they eat right) will be “healthy”.
yikes!
Absolutely delicious! thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you loved these muffins, Monique! Thanks for taking the time to let me know! 🙂
Hey
Need help!!! I baked this three times. The first two times, they came out really nice. Well, a little dry because I forgot and let them sit for longer than recommended time. Nevertheless, very delicious! Then yesterday I was baking them again, because my husband finished everything from the day before. I don’t know what I did wrong, the batter was so dry that it was difficult to mix it. I realized it is too dry. So I added in about 5 tbsp of milk in addition to the recommended 1/3 cup of milk. It was a bit better. But I was just so confused as to why it went horribly wrong yesterday (despite following the recipe)? I used honey before, and yesterday I used maple syrup instead of honey. Could that be causing the problem?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Amy! Let’s figure out what happened. 🙂 Honey and maple syrup both work equally well in this recipe, so that shouldn’t have caused the issue. Did you measure everything the same way and include the molasses along with the maple syrup in your third batch? Did you measure the banana using measuring cups or a kitchen scale? Same question for the oat bran and flour — how did you measure those? With your answers, we should be able to sort through those issues you saw!
Hey Amy
I think it was because I was tapping the measuring cup when I was measuring the oat bran. That might be causing the problem. I ordered a kitchen scale. So, the muffins are getting way better. The kitchen scale is a game changer. Really!!! I don’t know why I did not think of buying it earlier. I tried your double chocolate bran muffin and zucchini bran muffin. They turned out really well when I used kitchen scale for measurement. I am thinking of baking this again tonight, because the muffins that I bake using your recipe does not last for more than a day or two in my household. I will let you know how they turn out.
HOORAY!!! I’m so glad the kitchen scale is helping, Amy!! I totally agree that it’s a game changer. I can’t imagine baking without it anymore! 😉 That’s the best compliment in the world if your muffins never last more than two days — thank you so much for sharing that with me! I’m truly honored!!
Hey Amy
What brand do you use for oat bran? I used to use Hodgson Mill Oat Bran but I haven’t seen them in stores or online for a long time. I used Bob’s Red Mill Oat Bran, but the result is not the same. My muffins were denser than before.
I actually do use Bob’s Red Mill Oat Bran! However, I haven’t experienced that overly dense texture. How are you measuring your oat bran? With measuring cups or a kitchen scale? If the former, can you describe in detail what you do to measure? 🙂
What type of molasses do you use: Black Strap Molasses or something like Grandma’s molasses which has corn syrup it? Thanks!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Josie! I use Grandma’s Molasses. It doesn’t contain corn syrup. If you look at the ingredients on its label, it just includes one ingredient: molasses! No corn syrup whatsoever. 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try these muffins!
Hey! Can I use wheat bran instead of oat bran? I only have wheat bran right now.
I’m honored that you’d like to try my recipe Caroline! I haven’t personally tried using wheat bran, but other readers have and said it worked! If you typically use a kitchen scale for baking recipes, then check the side of your wheat bran package to see how many grams are in ¼ cup, and then multiply that by 6 for how many grams you should use. Otherwise, if you normally use measuring cups, then just use the same volume — 1 ½ cups! Does that make sense? 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think of these muffins if you do end up making them!